House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he’s prepared to sue to stop Florida from redrawing its congressional districts.
“My words to Ron DeSantis are: ‘See you in court,’” Jeffries said on the “On NOTUS” podcast.
Jeffries said the new Florida map, which the state legislature approved Wednesday, is unconstitutional.
Since 2010, the Florida Constitution has prohibited drawing congressional districts to benefit one party and has required that, where possible, districts should follow county and city boundaries.
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“The Ron DeSantis dummy-mandering does the exact opposite,” Jeffries told host Kadia Goba. “We will sue immediately upon it being signed into law. If we get to that point, it’s unconstitutional under state law. We also believe it violates the 14th Amendment by intentionally discriminating and targeting, particularly, Latinos in Central Florida.”
In the past year, six states, including Florida, have voluntarily redrawn their congressional maps, beginning with Texas passing a new map to benefit President Donald Trump.
“Republicans started this redistricting fight, and we’ve made clear we’re going to finish it. And so Republicans expected that they were going to net 10, 12, 15 seats. Right now, they’re not up. They’re down,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries spoke with NOTUS before the Supreme Court released a decision limiting the Voting Rights Act, which will likely affect future redistricting efforts.
Jeffries argued that Republican states are redrawing their districts rather than campaigning on their track record in office because Trump’s policies “have been a complete and total failure.”
“They have nothing to run on,” he said. “So that is the reason why they launched this redistricting battle, claiming that they were going to give themselves an advantage. They wanted to rig the midterm elections so that they were the ones to decide who was going to be in the majority in the next Congress, not the voters.”
Some Republicans argue that their redistricting efforts are in response to Democrats’ new maps and are meant to cement Trump’s agenda.
“At the end of the day, all that Mike Johnson will have accomplished, all that Republicans will have accomplished is that we’re in the same place where we started,” Jeffries added. “That’s their best-case scenario. … They’re down right now in a battle that they started.”
“On NOTUS” is a weekly podcast where NOTUS reporters talk to lawmakers about how they got to Washington and what motivates them. You can download or listen here.
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